Mr Tomscoll said the submission for this much needed funding was approved by government for release to the Coffee Industry Corporation (CIC) and the National Agriculture and Quarantine Inspection (NAQIA) on April 6.

The funds are K30 million [US$9 million] short of the K50 million [US$15 million] the minister had announced on February 21 soon after the initial detection of the pest in Jiwaka Province.

Mr Tomscoll said once the funds when released would go towards the ongoing efforts to contain the spread of the pest while also to increase awareness among the farmers in the affected areas.

He said funds used to date had been forked out by CIC and NAQIA, totalling K1 million [US$304,000] (K500,000 [US$152,000] each from the two state agencies) and from their own internal funding.

He added that most of it had been used up and what’s left is likely to run out in the next two weeks.

“The Government had already approved the K20 million it is critical that these funds be released by the Department of Finance and Department of Treasury.

“If these funds are not released we will have no choice except to call another meeting and scale down the current operations the barest to just awareness.

It will mean the check points which are quite costly to maintain will have to go and this will only the pave way for the spread of the CBB.’’

Pacific Islands Report is a nonprofit news publication of the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Offered as a free service to readers, PIR provides an edited digest of news, commentary and analysis from across the Pacific Islands region, Monday - Friday.